The last post I wrote was about Broody Buttercup sitting on two eggs waiting for them to hatch. Well, we waited and waited but nothing happened, they were duds. The rooster was pretty useless, as I heard from the lady I got the eggs from that none of the others hatched either but she did tell me that the Hamilton A&P show had chicks there for sale. So off I went and purchased two of the youngest Barnvelder chicks for Buttercup.
They are so cute! Little balls of fluff!
I removed the eggs from under Buttercup and popped these two cuties under her wings. She took to them straight away just like she had hatched them.
I think the chicks were pleased to have a mummy too. Much warmer than a heat lamp. They were about a day or two old when we got them so they are about a week old now and growing fast.
They don't stay still very long so a few of the photos turned out a bit blurry but here you can see that a favourite game, now that they have found out they can fly a little, is to fly on to mum's back and get a ride, if you can balance long enough.
When we have them out free ranging, we must make sure that our black cat is nowhere around. She has studied them closely in their pen and was probably thinking that they would be a tasty morsel just the right size for her mouth. Our other cat came a bit too close the other day when they were out and got frightened away by Buttercup. She was so scared that she hid under the bbq cover and didn't even come out for dinner! Needless to say that the dog is definately secured away when the birds are out.
When the chicks grow up they will look like this.
The day afer getting the chicks I went and picked up two Araucana hens that I had bought off Trade Me. This is where the green eggs come from. These hens lays eggs with green tinted shells but the contents are normal egg looking.
Apparently the Araucana hen originates from Chile. They have very little comb and no wattles (that the red thingies that hang under their beak). I have a traditional lavender Araucana and so I have named her Lavender...
...and a black one of an unknown father as they were free ranging where I got them from. It does make it easier to tell them apart when they are different colours though. Her name is Lucy. Her eggs are still green coloured but paler.
Lucy is camera shy. So far I have only had one egg from these two but they have been getting a hard time from Blossom, Daisy and Delilah, so it's not surprising really.
I separate Lucy and Lavender off from the three bullies each morning so hopefully they will get used to each other soon and we can return to laying green eggs. When all my hens and including the chicks when they are big enough, are laying I could get eight eggs a day. I'll have to start selling them!
Will I be getting more hens in the future? Maybe, after all, chooks are like potato chips, you can never have just one.
